Spectropolarimetric observations of Herbig Ae/Be Stars I: HiVIS spectropolarimetric calibration and reduction techniques

Abstract

Using the HiVIS spectropolarimeter built for the Haleakala 3.7m AEOS telescope in Hawaii, we are collecting a large number of high precision spectropolarimetrc observations of stars. In order to precisely measure very small polarization changes, we have performed a number of polarization calibration techniques on the AEOS telescope and HiVIS spectrograph. We have extended our dedicated IDL reduction package and have performed some hardware upgrades to the instrument. We have also used the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter on CFHT to verify the HiVIS results with back-to-back observations of MWC 361 and HD163296. Comparision of this and other HiVIS data with stellar observations from the ISIS and WW spectropolarimeters in the literature further shows the usefulness of this instrument.

arXiv comment35 pages, 44 figures, Accepted by PASP

References in corpus (11)

• Probing the circumstellar structure of Herbig Ae/Be stars
• On the binarity of Herbig Ae/Be stars
• A search for strong, ordered magnetic fields in Herbig Ae/Be stars
• Probing the circumstellar structures of T Tauri stars and their relationship to those of Herbig stars
• The magnetic field of the pre-main sequence Herbig Ae star HD 190073
• On the difference between Herbig Ae and Herbig Be stars
• Polarimetric line profiles for scattering off rotating disks
• Spectropolarimetry of the H-alpha line in Herbig Ae/Be stars
• A New Mechanism for Polarizing Light from Obscured Stars
• The new HiVIS spectropolarimeter and spectropolarimetric calibration of the AEOS telescope
• The Hanle Effect as a Diagnostic of Magnetic Fields in Stellar Envelopes IV. Application to Polarized P Cygni Wind Lines

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Speckle Suppression Through Dual Imaging Polarimetry, and a Ground-Based Image of the HR 4796A Circumstellar Disk
• The Solar-System-Scale Disk Around AB Aurigae
• Spectropolarimetric Observations of Herbig Ae/Be Stars. II. Comparison of Spectropolarimetric Surveys: HAeBe, Be and Other Emission-Line Stars
• Deriving Telescope Mueller Matrices Using Daytime Sky Polarization Observations
• Characterization of Solar Telescope Polarization Properties Across the Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrum. Case Study: The Dunn Solar Telescope
• Achromatizing a liquid-crystal spectropolarimeter: Retardance vs Stokes-based calibration of HiVIS
• Towards understanding dynamo action in M dwarfs
• Ubiquitous H-alpha polarized line profiles: absorptive spectropolarimetric effects and temporal variability in Post-AGB, Herbig Ae/Be and other stellar types
• Correcting systematic polarization effects in Keck LRISp spectropolarimetry to <0.05%
• Calibrating and Stabilizing Spectropolarimeters with Charge Shuffling and Daytime Sky Measurements
• Measuring the continuum polarization with ESPaDOnS